Life, 1888-01-12 · page 11 of 16
Life — January 12, 1888 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "A Serenata Nocturno" — Life Magazine Satire This page satirizes **romantic poetry and courtship conventions** of the Victorian/Aesthetic era (the subtitle references poet Algernon Swinburne, known for overwrought, melancholic verse). The two panels mock the disconnect between male romantic posturing and female reality: **Left panel**: An "Unprotected Female" anxiously anticipates being insulted by an approaching gentleman—assuming men are inherently predatory. **Right panel**: After he passes without acknowledging her, she's offended he *didn't* pay attention—revealing the absurdity of her anxiety. The surrounding poem parodies Swinburne's self-pitying romanticism: a lovelorn suitor serenades dramatically until a dog attacks him, chasing him away. The dog then claims credit for "munching his frail frame" and scattering his "roundelays" (love songs). **The joke**: Both the sentimental poet and the anxious woman are ridiculous—one self-absorbed, the other contradictory in her expectations. The satire targets pretentious literary culture and the irrational anxieties of courtship etiquette.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
- LIFE - A SEREMADO NOCTURNO. AFTER SWINBURNE, [ntroductory.} HE trees stand stripped in their stark stern beauty, The wind drones drearily over the plain; The sun came late to his morning duty, And went away early to sleep again. Slow and steadily drips the rain, And falls from the eaves with a dull dead patter, While a slamming shutter, with crazy clatter, Rattles the rickety window-pane. [Troubadour—pianissimo.] The moon leers out from the black and broken Banks of clouds that go scudding by ; The moon is full—and by that same token, Full—of a sombre grief—am I. Nay, wicked jester, rock-and-rye Hath no place in the woe that fills me ; Cold neglect is the thing that kills me. Unprotected Female: Ov My! 1 WISH THA Turn, fair maiden! Behold me die! ’ CAR WOULD [Fortissimo.] Fair one, hear me! Open your lattice ; Deign one smile to a freezing swain. (Pardon my shouts, for a callow cat is ‘Trying to drown mv sad refrain.) Hist! The snap of a breaking chain, And a growl—I fly from the wrath that’s coming ; Fate postpones my tum-ti-tum-tumming.— Farewell, Sweet, I will come again! [Canis—Furiosissimo.] Has he utterly gone? Yes, quite, thank heaven ! Not a trace of his tattered trousers stays ; He stood here howling, from just eleven Till half-past two, his lady-love’s praise : He loitered long with his lovelorn lays— But he sped full soon, and the moon laughed gladly To see me munching his frail frame madly, And strewing the yard with his roundelays ! ( Unprotected Female (after gentleman has passed): Hump! HURRY. HERE COMES A MAN, AND I’M JUST SURE HE WILL HE DIDN’T EVEN LOOK AT ME. INSULT ME! comicbooks.com